Korea Regional Management Institute Evaluates Economy, Education, Safety, etc.
2nd Place Gyeonggi Suwon, 3rd Place Jeonbuk Namwon
Sejong City was ranked as the best city to live in South Korea.
The Korea Regional Management Institute (Chairman Yoon Hwang, Director Jeong Seong-hoon) recently announced the results of the "2024 Sustainable Cities Evaluation in South Korea," as reported by Yonhap News on the 9th. This evaluation was conducted based on objective and quantitative indicators related to five areas: population, economy and employment, education, health and medical care, and safety, targeting all basic cities, counties, and districts (228 in total) nationwide. Following Sejong City, the 2nd place went to Suwon City in Gyeonggi Province, 3rd to Namwon City in Jeonbuk Province, 4th to Yuseong District in Daejeon, and 5th to Songpa District in Seoul.
Sejong City earned the title of a growing city by ranking first in the population sector, which was evaluated based on indicators related to population size, population growth rate, birth rate, and average age. As of the end of 2022, Sejong City's population size was 388,927, ranking 50th among the 228 cities, counties, and districts, but it ranked 4th nationwide in population growth rate and 1st nationwide in average age. Notably, Sejong City's average age was 37.7 years, the lowest in the country.
In the economy and employment sector, Sejong City scored a total of 211.2 points, ranking 4th among cities with high economic vitality. This score comprehensively considered fiscal independence, the proportion of regular workers, employment rate, average income per capita, and home ownership rate. On the other hand, Sejong City's education sector showed somewhat poor performance. Based on 2023 Statistics Korea data, when evaluated using indicators such as the number of students per class in kindergartens and elementary, middle, and high schools, the number of students per teacher, and the number of private academies per 1,000 population, Sejong City scored a total of 71.9 points, ranking 97th.
In the total sustainable city score measured based on 25 indicators across five areas, Sejong City recorded a total score of 637.8 points, ranking first overall in the city, county, and district category as well as in the integrated city-county-district-basic district category. Regarding this, the Korea Regional Management Institute explained that considering population, economy and employment, education, health and medical care, and safety, Sejong City is the local government with the greatest sustainability nationwide.
The 6th to 10th places in this evaluation were occupied by Asan City in Chungnam Province, Pyeongtaek City in Gyeonggi Province, Icheon City in Gyeonggi Province, Yeosu City in Jeonnam Province, and Hanam City in Gyeonggi Province, respectively.
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